Every day, police officers respond to reports of all sorts of events and nonevents, most of which never make the news. Here is a sampling of lesser-known — but no less noteworthy — incidents from police blotters in our communities.
Police in Everett get lots of reports of dogs in local cemeteries. Some of them are lost pets, like little Valentino (a.k.a. Tino). He was spotted by officers and residents and was ultimately picked up by Animal Control Officer Stacia Gorgone last fall and then reunited with his family, who’d been searching for him. But other dogs are strays or were abandoned by their owners. Gorgone said people will drive into the cemeteries and just let their pets go. All kinds of pets, too: dogs, cats, kittens, and even guinea pigs. “They will leave them in there and then they can’t get out,” she said. Cemeteries are not safe places to leave an animal she said, because coyotes live there. Gorgone works with Missing Dogs Massachusetts to trap dogs that are seen in the cemeteries and get them out safely. In the case of Tino, his owner “even threw a welcome home party for him,” Gorgone said.
On Feb. 7, Foxborough police shared a video of a cow sauntering down a local street in town. “This young lady was out and about early this morning,” police wrote, ”a little midnight stroll. Happy to report she made it back safely to her home! If we spoke cow we would have thanked her for using the sidewalk.”
At 7:26 a.m. Jan. 16, Norwood police received a call on the department’s business line reporting some suspicious activity on Rock Street. The caller said a male party wearing a ski mask and a blue sweatshirt was hiding behind a tree and ran away when the caller saw him. Police checked the area and were unable to locate the masked man, but they did find four bags containing olive oil. Police checked with a supermarket located nearby to see if the olive oil belonged to them. Store employees said they were notifying their loss prevention people, and would follow up if needed.
On Jan. 25, Sandwich police were asked to conduct a wellness check on an individual who was seen walking his bicycle on Route 130. “The man showed no sign of impairment but did exhibit questionable fashion sense,” police wrote. “He was wearing pumpkin pajama bottoms after Halloween which is probably more egregious than white after Labor Day.”
At Blotter Tales we write a lot about animal rescues and lost pets returning home. This next story doesn’t involve law enforcement, but it’s crazy enough that we think it’s worth mentioning. On the day of the first big snowstorm, the one in January, a cat got into an apartment building in Roslindale. When he was found, he was brought to the MSCPA-Angell shelter, where they scanned him for a microchip: He had one, and it was registered! When a staffer called the number on the chip, the woman who answered was shocked to learn it was her cat, Tiger, who had been missing for four years. When Tiger came home, he walked right over to the food cabinet and pawed at it the same way he used to. “Then he curled up by the base of the fridge, right where the warm air comes out,” MSPCA-Angell officials wrote. ”Exactly like old times!“ Another cat owner received a similar phone call recently from Kitty Angels, an all-volunteer organization in Tyngsborough, after her cat turned up 10 years after it went missing. Joan Abbott, the founder of that group, said the fact that the long-lost cat had a microchip — and the chip was registered, which is key — made the long overdue reunion possible. “It was all about the microchip,” Abbott said. “It’s a big thing everyone should do. I wish people would do it more.”
Emily Sweeney can be reached at emily.sweeney@globe.com. Follow her @emilysweeney and on Instagram @emilysweeney22.
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